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Examveda

The 'Diamond water' controversy is explained by

A. Total utility

B. Marginal utility

C. Price offered

D. Quantity supplied

Answer: Option B

Solution(By Examveda Team)

The 'Diamond water' controversy is explained by marginal utility. Marginal utility is the additional satisfaction or gain someone gets from using or purchasing an additional unit of a particular good or service. People are willing to pay a higher price for goods with greater marginal utility.
So, let's go back to water and diamonds. There is plenty of water in most parts of the world (not scarce), which means that, as consumers, we usually have a low marginal utility for water. In a typical situation, we aren't willing to pay a lot of money for one more drink of water. Diamonds, however, are scarce. Because they are harder to find and attain, our marginal utility (additional satisfaction), for adding a diamond to our collection is much higher than someone offering us one more drink of water. If one is dying of thirst, then this paradox might not make sense, and the marginal utility from another drink of water would be much higher than the additional satisfaction of owning a diamond.

This Question Belongs to Commerce >> Economics

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Related Questions on Economics

Which among the following statement is INCORRECT?

A. On a linear demand curve, all the five forms of elasticity can be depicted

B. If two demand curves are linear and intersecting each other, then, coefficient of elasticity would be same on different demand curves at the point of intersection.

C. If two demand curves are linear and parallel to each other, then, at a particular price, the coefficient of elasticity would be different on different demand curves.

D. The price elasticity of demand is expressed in terms of relaive not absolute changes in Price and Quantity demanded.